"When you look at a traditional facility, one of the hardest times to actually book [it] is the time during the [8 a.m. to 3 p.m.] time period," Township Chief Operating Officer Chris Nunes told the board on Oct. 22, as Community Impact reported. If those hours are "consumed already and that are paid for on a per hour basis or some other formula," he said, that "goes very well to manage the impact from a budget, revenue and operational cost standpoint."
That quote explains the whole project. The Woodlands Township is studying an indoor field house, and the question underneath the study is financial. Can a weekday partner, most likely Conroe ISD, cover enough of the school day to keep the building in the black? Conroe ISD won't take up partnership terms until the study is finished.
The money started out as a skate loop
The project grew out of a budget line originally meant for something else. At the Aug. 20 budget workshop, the board set aside $600,000 from the Township's park needs assessment fund in the fiscal year 2027 budget. Board Chair Brad Bailey said that money had first been pitched for a skateboard, scooter and bike loop course. He suggested using it instead to research a joint project with Conroe ISD, describing an air-conditioned indoor practice facility.
Bailey's reasoning, as Community Impact reported in August, was about both use and revenue. He described an indoor artificial field the Township could program for soccer, football, lacrosse and band in partnership with CISD, and said it "would be a moneymaker for this board, and we like revenue."
Two months later, the board approved a much smaller contract:
| Budget action | Amount | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Aug. 20 FY2027 allocation | $600,000 | A broader pool for the feasibility process and any other studies that might follow |
| Oct. 22 Burditt task order | $231,600 | Burditt Consultants' defined scope, funded in 2026 instead of 2027 |
| 3D modeling and rendering option | $18,000 | Left out of the approval; would need separate authorization |
The $600,000 was a ceiling for the whole process, and the contract uses only what its defined work costs. The vote was 6-0, and Nunes made clear that it authorizes feasibility work, not construction. The Township's Boardroom Briefing for Oct. 22 has the meeting recap.
What Burditt is being asked to price
The task order Burditt submitted for the Oct. 22 agenda describes a building with a long list of possible uses. It calls for evaluating indoor turf of roughly 50 to 100 yards and smaller turf layouts that can be divided, along with indoor courts and multipurpose rooms. It also covers fitness and wellness space, a walking and jogging area, spectator seating, concessions, and tournament and other revenue-generating uses.
The site list points to a specific part of town. The task order names Township-owned property between College Park High School and The Woodlands High School, including Bear Branch Sports Fields and the part of Bear Branch Park next to the existing recreation center. It also directs Burditt to consider use by athletic programs at those two schools. Bear Branch has been getting upgrades already. The Township opened a covered multipurpose court there in 2024.
The location fits the plan. A building that sits between two high schools is the easiest one to fill with school teams during the day.
Why the school day decides it
Bailey spelled out who those daytime users would be. "Partnering with the Conroe ISD for schools that are in our area … would be very important to us because they're in the township for football, band, drill team, cheerleading … etc.," he said, as Community Impact reported. He also said he doesn't want the facility competing with businesses in the community.
Put those two goals together and the economics follow. Evenings and weekends are when residents and club teams usually want indoor space, and private operators compete for those hours. Weekday mornings and early afternoons are the slow stretch. A school partner paying by the hour for that slow stretch is what could make a public field house work without leaning on the evening market. During the meeting discussion, staff also brought up morning use and the window from about 2:30 to 4:30 or 5 p.m. as possible CISD time. The agenda materials call partnership talks exploratory, not an agreement.
That is why the order of the study matters. The board sees designs before it sees operating numbers, and the operating numbers come before the district's answer:
- Phase 1: preliminary analysis, programming and feasibility, including meetings with Township staff and stakeholders and a review of current recreation programs and fee schedules.
- Phase 2: up to three concepts with capital cost comparisons, presented to the board.
- Phase 3: if the board approves one option, an operating and revenue analysis, a 10-year financial pro forma, and a final report to the board.
The 10-year pro forma is where the school-day question gets a number. It also comes last. Conroe ISD has said it will look at partnership terms only after the study is complete, so any figure for weekday use will rest on planning assumptions, not a signed agreement.
Where residents come into the process
The scope leaves out broad public input. The task order says stakeholder engagement will happen mainly through focused staff and stakeholder meetings. It excludes public surveys, town halls, statistically valid community surveys and extensive public-engagement programs. Its market analysis relies on existing Township, comparable-facility and stakeholder information, without a new resident survey.
The most recent survey of residents on the Township's parks planning page is the October 2022 Parks & Recreation Needs Assessment. More than 2,000 people responded between April 4 and May 16 that year. Over half said they took part in organized recreation, and field sports made up nearly 40% of those organized-recreation responses. The top system-wide priority, though, was taking care of what already exists. Respondents named maintenance, restrooms, safety, lighting, crowding, accessibility and parking among their concerns.
Parking was also the issue Nunes raised at the October meeting. He called it the biggest challenge in planning a sports facility. Board Director Shelley Sekula-Gibbs asked that Burditt look at "both sides of the road," including connections in phases, and treat the field house as "a real project for the next 20, 30 years," according to Community Impact.
Since the study has no public survey, the place for residents to speak is at the board's own meetings, when the Phase 2 concepts come back. Agendas and minutes are posted on the Township's Board of Directors meetings page.
The indoor gyms already in use
The Township isn't starting from zero indoors. It runs two full-service recreation centers with indoor gymnasiums. Bear Branch Recreation Center is at 5310 Research Forest Drive, and Rob Fleming Recreation Center is at 6464 Creekside Forest Drive. Both host year-round programs, youth camps and adult sports leagues, with registration through the Township's parks programs portal.
The task order tells Burditt to design something that complements those buildings and to review their operating models first. The new piece would be indoor turf, since a gym can't host football, lacrosse or band. Because a full-size indoor field is large, the next decision point will be the Phase 2 concepts the board sees. Those concepts will show the size of the building, which part of Bear Branch it would use, and its rough capital cost.
If you live near Bear Branch Park or between College Park and The Woodlands High School and want to know what a project like this could mean for your street over time, The Merlo Team follows Township decisions like this one closely. Start with an Instant Home Valuation and we'll walk you through the details, in English or Spanish.
